Rugby League

Today sees another appearance of the mighty Leeds Rhinos at Old Trafford and for the second year in a row, we made it from 5th spot. Can we do it again? Who knows!

This time we face Warrington Wolves the team that beat us in the Challenge Cup final back in August. unfortunately it isn’t our normal Grand Final opponents in St Helens, but never mind, a change is as good as a rest.

As usual I am very nervous and feeling terribly pessimistic. Well it’s worked every single time we’ve been to Old Trafford so hopefully it will work this time.

Can’t wait to see the boys following the lead of Sir Kevin Sinfield, who in my eyes has had some of his best games towards the end of this season. That man is a legend and I want to see nothing more that his hands on that trophy and listen to his unbelievable speech at the end of today’s game.

So another day, another Ryan Bailey saga. Up in front of the disciplinary courts again, we all knew what the result was going to be before it even was announced.

Now don’t get me wrong, showing any disrespect to a referee is bad news & totally out of line, god knows, I go mad about the exact same thing when I’m watching the football…but 3 matches???? I mean is the offence really worse than Chris Bridges’ elbow drop from the previous week, well not in my opinion it’s not.

To be honest, I can’t quite believe that I’m reading it to be honest, but hey, it’s Ryan Bailey so he’s always going to get the worst punishment.

I can understand why people dislike him, as I would if he played for another team, but I think if you looked at this in comparison to other offences, it doesn’t really seem fair.

So last night I witnessed an amazing game of rugby league between 2 great champion teams at the Headingley Carnegie Stadium…Leeds Rhinos Vs Manly Sea Eagles. The game was the World Club Challenge, a game where the champions of the Super League & the NRL get to battle against each other to become ‘Champions of the World’

Having had a pretty busy week, I missed all the hype, write ups & team news, so on the way to the ground I started to get very nervous. Suddenly realising the importance of the game. The Southstand was rammed, it’s been so long since it’s been like that, it was nice to see it back to a full capacity, it makes the atmosphere so much better.

From the 1st minute, I could see that the game was going to be tough, they were huge. Especially their No17 George Rose who must be the widest rugby player I have *ever* seen 🙂

Highlight of the 1st half has to be the massive hit on Brett Delaney which made him look like he’d hit a brick wall. I have no doubt that if that was me, I would have just died right there on the spot.

Leeds were just awesome for the whole game. I’m not sure if I can pick out a particular player who was the best as they all played their part, from Sinfield’s kick to Hall & Hall’s take for the 3rd try to the seemingly never ending barrage of tackles they had to deal with in the 2nd half, they were all immense.

After 50 minutes when Manly scored their second try, you could see them physically lift, they were faster, more organised & I feared for the worst when they went over for a third time, only for it to be wiped off for a push. This was definitely a turning point for me & Leeds kicked on.

What an awesome feeling after a brilliant performance. I don’t think I could be more proud of the boys right now.

Tomorrow sees Leeds Rhinos’ first trip away of the 2012 season which takes them to Wigan and I can’t wait. It’s not usual that I can go to the DW stadium as it’s normally a Friday night which is impossible to do without taking any time off work.

So tomorrow morning we’ll be setting off over the Pennines for a lovely lunch at the Trafford Centre, followed by what hopefully will be another win for the Rhinos. It’s what we need before the game against Manly next weekend.

According to The Rhinos website, we are an unchanged team from last weeks win over Hull KR, with Jamie Jones-Buchanan and Kylie Leuluai the only worries.

After last weeks performance we should be in for an awesome game…there’s nothing better than a big hit out before a fight for silverware. Will we see you there?

I would just like to publicly congratulate the ‘Magnificent 7’, Rob Burrow for an amazing 10 years at Leeds Rhinos. It has been great to watch our little ‘Beep Beep’ improve and progress to the player he is today, accumulating in a fantastic performance in the Grand Final last October.

The try he scored was one that I could watch over & over again (and do!).

Watching his testimonial game against Featherstone Rovers last night & seeing his tweets on Twitter make me quite emotional. You can just see & hear the gratefulness in his voice, overwhelmed by the support he has received over the past 10 years.

Rob, from me to you, a massive THANK YOU! You have been my favourite player for the past 10 years following the great Alan Tait and I look forward to watching you for many more. I wish you all the luck in the world for your rugby career and onwards especially with Lindsey & Macy.

Next Friday sees the Testimonial of my favourite player, Rob Burrow, the 1st game of 2012 and a pre season friendly in build up to the new season. It feels like it’s been a long time coming, even though it’s only really been a couple of months.

It was announced yesterday that the South Stand at Headingley would be closed for maintenance. Seems a little mean on Rob that he’ll be playing in front of an empty stand, but I guess these things can’t be helped. My main concern is, I have never watched a Rugby League match from anywhere but the South Stand and this seems like a very weird prospect. I have watched Sevens and The Tykes but never The Rhinos, in 22 years.

I’m open to new things most of the time, but this…this seems different some how, this is a change in tradition.

This aside, I will not be letting this put me off, I guess it had to happen sometime, so lets embrace it. But now there’s a decision to make, West, Carnegie or North?

So I thought it was about time I voiced my opinion on the Ryan Bailey / Jon Wilkin saga, albeit a little late. I am a little disappointed that still after all this time that players make the mistake of bringing our brilliant game to the National Press in a negative way.

Now I know people will think that my views are biased due to my allegiance to Leeds Rhinos, but after one of the greatest grand finals there has ever been, the only thing people are talking about is the article in The Sun whereby Jon Wilkin moans about the way that Ryan Bailey celebrated after the win on Saturday.

Part of me understands where he is coming from. Ryan maybe should have acted slightly better when in front of the St Helen players, as no one likes a show off or a smug winner. And maybe he should have apologised in the public eye. But maybe Jon should have thought before he spoke to the press, our game doesn’t need any more negativity from its own players.

How would he have felt if he had won in the way that Leeds did – written off for the whole of the season, winning his 5th grand final ring, all at the end of his biggest season of his career. Isn’t the fact that he went to The Sun, not thinking before he acts to. So isn’t he guilty of a similar thing.

I hope it’s not sour grapes and I wish that some of his teammates hadn’t joined in, Jamie Foster in particular. We can do without this. They’re comments are too a demonstration of ‘childish’ behaviour.

I think after the season that Ryan has had, it is brilliant news that he has called up for England. He has been our most improved player this year. Yeah, I know he’s hated throughout the league by fans from all teams apart from Leeds, however, isn’t all that hate meant to be put aside when they don an England shirt? I’d be the first to admit that I dislike players that play for other clubs, Sam Tomkins being one of them, but if he’s in an England shirt then I would never dream of booing him & I think the majority of fans would think the same, regardless of the minority at the game at Headingley last year.

I guess my overall thoughts on this whole saga are ones of sadness. It’s a shame when something so good is overshadowed by something so ridiculous. Let’s just hope it all gets forgotten about in the next few weeks when the two have to be teammates.

It doesn’t get better than this. This is what we watch rugby for, the big games, the excitement, the day where 80,000 rugby league fans take over one of the most famous football grounds in the world! (& give them something to moan about for the next few weeks when their pitch is chewed up)

I can’t think about what might happen if we win…I’m a pessimist so surely we can’t do it…can we?

One good thing about it is we have nothing to lose, we have got there from 5th, we’ve beaten Saints 3 times in a row, they’re the ones with a point to prove. So maybe, just maybe I’ll be adding some more posters to my shrine to Leeds Rhinos at work on Monday morning. 🙂

Tomorrow is the day we’ve been waiting for all week. If I’m honest I still can’t really believe we are going.

After the season we’ve had, this really shouldn’t be happening, but thems the rules and we’re definitely playing to them 🙂

I heard an amazing quote from a Hull FC fan this week, which made me giggle & also sums up some people’s mentality…”That’s the reason I don’t support Leeds, it becomes too expensive”. Brilliant, but I know what I would prefer. It’s like saying, I only support Hull FC because I know they’ll never win anything. Weird, huh, but everyone’s entitled to their own opinion I guess.

I’m so looking forward to tomorrow. Another first for my converted friend, Mike, who I’m sure wondered what had hit him after last week’s game finished 🙂 I just hope we can win this time…Wembley was good, but I’m hoping Old Trafford will be better.

We look strong & relaxed according to the information coming out of the club and I guess we have got nothing to lose. Let’s go out & smash em boys…& continue the song going…’Our grand final b*tc*es’